PM: 'We did not lay off a single gazetted worker'

PM Dr Keith Rowley 
Photo by Sureash Cholai
PM Dr Keith Rowley Photo by Sureash Cholai

THE PRIME Minister said Government has not laid off a single gazetted public servant though some contracts had not been renewed.

He was speaking Thursday at the Finance Ministry's spotlight on budget 2020 held at the Radisson Hotel, Port of Spain.

He said Government will not use as a policy the reduction in the public service as a response to the reduction in revenue and this would not have been the case if TT was an IMF candidate.

Dr Rowley said Government is supporting the unemployment level at about 1.2 per cent. He said Government is supports a significant part of the labour force via programmes designed and to keep people employed.

"So there is an employment support system funded by the state which reflects itself in a low employment level. Had that policy not been taken a lot of people who earn a meal and earn a living would have been on the unemployment list and the figure would not have been 1.2. It would have been double digits. It might have been 15 per cent."

He said there are Caribbean countries with 20 per cent unemployment.

Rowley said when people talk about Government having no policy and loss of jobs it has to be taken in the context of who is speaking and what they are talking about.

"The Government has not laid off a single gazetted public servant in response to the loss of revenue. We have not renewed some contracts for contract workers because they were not priority on the jobs that they were doing or in that situation as we had to cut the expenditure from $62 billion to $52 billion some people literally lost their jobs in the contract side of things."

He said when this administration came into office it had to honour the contract to public servants of back pay costing $5 billion.

"Having done that the public servants have to understand the Government is at its limit in its availability of funds to pay public servants."

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